Justinian Lane

Wisconsin May Cap Punitive Damages At $200,000

Continuing the “2011 will be a bad year for civil justice” theme:

The Senate judiciary committee voted 3-2 on Friday to cap punitive damages at $200,000 or twice the amount of compensatory damages, whichever is greater. Current state law does not lay out any caps on punitive damages.

Capping punitive damages at $200k will only encourage corporations to sell profitable but defective products. If it weren’t for punitive damage awards well in excess of $200k, Johns Manville might still be pumping out asbestos products.

I don’t understand Republican ideology. On one hand, most of them support the death penalty. But on the other hand, they don’t like punitive damages. How can you rationalize putting a man to death for committing a crime, but not allowing the family of his victims to take more than $200k?